Born in 1977 in Mexico City, Aliza Nisenbaum makes portrait paintings that are manifestations of exchanges with her subjects over time. Collaborating with communities, she employs the focused attention of observational painting to create the conditions for close-looking. Distinct social groups are foregrounded, including immigrant communities, dancers, members of grassroot organizations, subway, airport, and health workers. Nisenbaum engages with these groups on various levels, sharing resources, skills and ultimately, the intimacy of portraiture as social representation. Through lengthy engagement with her subjects, the artist gains a deeper understanding of individual and collective histories, and she uses observational painting as both medium and documentary process. Often lushly decorated with patterned textiles found in her sitter’s homes and tiles from workplace settings, Nisenbaum makes visible the material conditions, friendships and alliances of work and leisure environments. Starting with the premise that paying attention, close observation and patient listening, are political acts.
Aliza Nisenbaum earned a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2001, and an MFA from the same institution in 2005. Selected solo and two-person exhibitions include The Barak Obama Presidential Center (June 2026); Des Moines Art Center (2025–2026); The Metropolitan Opera, New York (2023–2024); Queens Museum, New York (2023); Delta Air Lines x Queens Museum at LaGuardia Airport, New York (2022); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (2022); Tate Liverpool (2020); and Minneapolis Institute of Art (2017–2018).
About the Partnership
The exhibitions Aliza Nisenbaum and Naudline Pierre mark the fifth iteration of a recent curatorial partnership between The FLAG Art Foundation and the Parrish Art Museum. Between 2026 and 2030, the two organizations will collaborate on three exhibitions annually across two adjoining galleries at the Museum. This partnership builds on the recent FRESH PAINT collaboration, a rotating series of single-artwork exhibitions at the Parrish that began in June 2024. Signaling the deepening relationship between FLAG and the Parrish, this expanded partnership also marks the growth of FLAG’s commitment to supporting contemporary art practices of all forms beyond its brick-and-mortar exhibition spaces in Manhattan.
Exhibition Support
Aliza Nisenbaum is made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of The FLAG Art Foundation.
The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.
About The FLAG Art Foundation
The FLAG Art Foundation is a non-collecting, nonprofit exhibition space that mounts solo, two-person, and thematic group exhibitions centering on emerging and established artists from around the globe. Organized by a diverse community of curators and thinkers within and beyond the art world, FLAG opened to the public in 2008 and has staged over 100 exhibitions celebrating the work of nearly 1,000 artists. Committed to providing education and resources for its surrounding community, and across New York City, all exhibitions and programs—including artist talks, artist-led workshops, and guided tours for school and museum groups—are free and open to the public.
The FLAG Art Foundation was founded by Glenn Fuhrman, an art patron and philanthropist, alongside his wife Amanda, a Co-Founder of The Fuhrman Family Foundation. Fuhrman is a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The Tate Americas Foundation, New York, NY; and is a Board Member of The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, PA. He is also a Board Member of the 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, and The Central Park Conservancy, New York, NY.
